Thursday, October 27, 2011

Hike to Jacmel

This was a fantastic way to finish off my two month trip! Weeks earlier I heard of this
picturesque hike that you could do going from the small town of Furcy (basically where the road is no longer accessible via truck or car) all the way to the southern coast, eventually to city of Jacmel. Nancy and Sven had talked about
doing it for a while, all I needed was to prioritize it and start lighting a fire to get them going. Once the discussion really started to turn into a plan, our group of three then doubled as we added fellow volunteers Ben, Mike and Mari to the mix.
Mari, who just got to Haiti just a couple weeks prior to the hike, had spent a few months in Jacmel working last year, so she was familiar with the hotels and the area itself. The plan was to take Friday and Saturday off, hike both days and to return home late Sunday afternoon. Nancy and Mike planned on staying at a cute 120 year old hotel in Jacmel, Mari with some friends at a fellow NGO house on the beach, and Ben, Sven and I would share the "company" shack not too far away.
The owner of the school we were working on currently under construction in the area, Dignite, also owned the shack where some of the Haitian staff would stay the night if they were to work the following day. We found out the shack would not be occupied Saturday night and since it was free, the three of us jumped at the chance to save a bit.
Thursday night we had the Bati Bien cocktail hour, and by the time that let out and we made
our way home, the office was locked up and we couldn't get into the building to get our bags, etc. So, Friday morning we needed to go to the office, get our bags, go to the market and pick up all the items we needed for the hike (mainly food and water), go back to the house to pack, then hop in the truck and head up to Furcy.
This wound up taking a bit longer than planned, so the hike officially began just after noon. We initially thought we would start by 10am, so we had to pick up the pace a bit to avoid hitting sundown. Eileen, a new Inveneo employee, had done this same hike last year and referred a house to stay at the first night just outside of La Vista National Forest. We knew it was going to be roughly ten miles to get there, but none of us new the exact location of the house, so that was a bit of a mystery. The hike was AMAZING! It took me back to Peru with Nicole and the kids last year.

Beautiful rolling mountains of green vegetation, mystical stretches of fog, the path covered in mist, and a lot more people than I had expected to see. All locals. We were the only "blancs" on the path. Everywhere we went we heard "Blanc...Blanc," over and over. Little kids, adults, that was their favorite thing to say. Really funny, bit got a bit old after a while. I felt like saying "Noir...Noir," right back, but didn't want to upset anyone! We must have seen a few hundred locals, all making this same trek with the greatest of ease, rundown sandals and huge baskets filled with vegetables all balanced on their heads. They were lapping us, being so used to walk, just another day on the job...Our paces were all a bit different. Mari loved to take the lead and disappear a few hundred feet ahead, which at times got a bit annoying. Sven was the slow one, getting a pretty nasty blister on his big toe early on the hike which ailed him throughout both days.
The rest of us fit pretty well in the middle. I was not sure how well I was going to take all the walking since I had not tried to go more than just a couple miles since breaking my ankle, so I made sure to tape it up pretty well and wear two pairs of socks, all while being very careful where I placed each step. Was impressed, getting through it without any problems. So every half hour or so we would have a group pow-wow to make sure we were all doing ok. I packed a dozen small salami sandwiches, some cookies, and about five liters of water, along with swim trunks, a change of clothes, my strapped Tevas (which I intuitively turned into water bottle holders strapped to my bag), and some money. At first it was a bit heavy, but as we walked and I consumed some of my stash, it got a bit lighter.The hours went by rather quickly.
The terrain was continuously changing, passing small groups of wooden structures throughout the afternoon. Wet, dry, steep, flat...this hike had it all. I couldn't help but take a picture every five minutes, we were surrounded by such beauty the entire time. Eventually, we reached the beginning of the pine forest, which was so interesting to see considering I had not seen a single pine tree the entire time I had been in Haiti; and now there was thousands of them. Evidently the local government has a hard time protecting these trees from being cut down.
The whole country has a huge problem in regards to deforestation, and even though it is hard to get there, people still sneak a tree here and there. Once we got there, none of us really knew how much further it was to the house we were staying for the night, and no one got cell service, so it was a little bit of a worry since we only had an hour of light left. But we got our first glimpse of the Caribbean, which was really cool. After hiking through this gorgeous national forest, we FINALLY arrived at the house, with about ten minutes to spare before it was pitch black. It was a great feeling. To make the situation even more amazing, there was hot tea waiting for us, and dinner was one it's way. What a great feeling that was, after walking for almost six hours, getting to our destination, and having a nice cup of hot tea. And the icing on the cake, a hot shower! First one in two months...Dinner was great. The owner of the house is Lebanese, so we had roasted veggies, pot roast and rice...super good!
After dinner we just sat back, reminisced about the past few hours and looked ahead to the next day. Everyone was asleep by 9pm, super quiet and relaxing.
We woke up, had breakfast and started up nice and early. One of the young kids that helped around the house took us on a "off the beaten path" route to save us some time. The scenery was completely different than the day before. We hiked south, so the view of the Caribbean was visible the entire time.
Instead of mist, there were palm trees. At the highest point, we were at 6000 ft in the mountains and we had to get all the way back down to sea level. So throughout the entire hike Saturday, we had to traverse back and forth all the way down, which took SO long. Every time we hiked an additional hour, it seemed we were not at all closer to the water.
I joked that for every 100 feet we hiked, we only got 1 foot closer since we were zig-zagging our whole way down. We continued to hit pockets of people either living or working off the trail. A lot of vertical farming, absolutely green everywhere, beautiful. Dating back to the prior day, we noticed several motos pass us, some available for hire.
Once we got later and later into the day, hiking for over six hours and still not feeling we were even near where we needed to be, we decided as a group to hire three motorcycles (two of us to ride on each) to take us the remaining distance. So we sat and waited for about twenty minutes until we saw the next rider come by, then we got him to gather two others and we were off on our next portion of our journey.





The ride was rather bumpy, to say the least. As we zipped down the later portions of the trail, we came across a small river...and rode across it. Our bike (Sven and I) got stuck at the end and our driver needed to maneuver over the last five tough feet, losing his sandal in the process. Luckily there was another rider behind us that grabbed it and returned it to him. After we got through that we rode another ten minutes until we hit the BIG river. No crossing this one on the bike, so we all had to get off and hike through the thigh high water, which was a bit more rapid than expected, but fun in a way. An adventure needs these little details. The bikes magically were waiting for us on the other side, so we hopped back on and rode on an actual road for the first time since we got dropped after the day before.
We rode for another twenty minutes or so until we reached the spot we all said we would meet, right along the picture perfect shoreline we spent over a full day and 22 miles to get to. After meeting up with some of Mari's acquaintances that held a table at a restaurant right on the beach, we stripped down to our swimwear and jumped in one by one; the water felt amazing. Then add an ice cold beer to the mix, heaven. It was about 4pm when we were all there safe and sound, knowing this would have been impossible without hiring the motos to take us the final leg. Sven and I still had to go by the shack and get the key from the owner, but that was a quick jaunt up the road. The NGO house that Mari was staying with friends was just two houses from the restaurant, so as the sun set, we all ordered dinner and more beer, celebrating the fact that we made it. I had the lobster, of course, amazing!
Rick (our structural engineer at AFH) and his wife Theresa met us there and planned on staying in Jacmel for the night, so after dinner everyone going into town loaded into his SUV, including Sven who wanted to go back to the shack. Ben and I stuck around and hung out at the NGO house, occupied by a handful of Bulgarians working in Haiti. We sat, drank, conversed, listened to music and did some night swimming. The water was the perfect temperature, I was very happy...until my wedding band decided it wanted to go for a swim as well! It slipped off my finger as I sat in the waves, never to be found again. Luckily I have an amazing wife that was accepting of this stupid mistake and a new ring is being made as I type...
Ben and I decided to just crash on the porch at the house, just feet from the water break. I slept in a comfy hammock that went from one palm to another, waking just in time for a wonderful sunrise. I got up to take some pics and a video, then went right back to sleep for another couple hours. As the morning got later, everyone began to get up and start the day. We had fresh coffee and OJ, some fruit, and started to get packed up. I went out for a mid morning swim, subtly looking for my lost ring, to no prevail. Ben, Mari and I organized a time to get picked up by Rick and Theresa, then hopped in the SUV to go to the Dignite site to check out the school.
The school just had the roof installed the prior week and the openings were being prepped for the installation of the windows the next week. We spent about a half an hour there, then went to this cool beach restaurant for lunch, where I got my second lobster meal in less than a day! So nice, grilled on an open flame...only $12 for an entire one. Wow. The only down side was it took about two hours to get it. In the mean time, I played some frisbee on the beach with a couple of new friends. Funny thing happened too; two women approached me commenting about my Free Wheelchair shirt. Turned out they worked for Handicapped International and wanted to be put in contact with them. Be cool if it works out, traded info and will try to put them in touch.
After the awesome lunch, we headed into Jacmel to meet up with our driver, Patrick. He was a bit late getting to the hotel, so I had my last beer of the weekend at the bar. Rick took back half the group, leaving Nancy, Ben and I at the hotel.

The drive back was epic, the sun bursting through the clouds across the mountains. It takes just over two hours to get back to Petionville from Jacmel, and Ben and I sat in the back of the pickup, so it was a nice amount of time to just sit back and take in on the views. We got back to the house just before sunset, in time for dinner and to tell the rest of the house about the amazing time we just had. Back to normal showers again, but that would only last another couple of days before heading back to the U.S.
The hike was perfect, we all got along well and enjoyed the entire trip. Outside of a couple of blisters, I returned in perfect health, ready to work my last two days for AFH.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Work as normal, another fun weekend...

Wow, another week...just a flyin'! Seven weeks ago today is when I left San Diego to go up to LAX, amazing how quickly this trip has flipped in the other direction. I feel like it took so long to get to the half way point, then once that hit it has been just another week, not three.
This past week was just straight to working and staying busy, now working on schematics for some housing clusters in Villa Rosa. In the evenings I have listened or watched some baseball games, some unreal game 5's in the division series. It has been great being able to catch a lot of the content online, don't really feel like I am missing much. The way all the series ended were all one run games, exciting stuff. And to add to that, some crazy Chargers games. They almost let the Broncos squeak it out Sunday, got to fix that. At least they have a bye this week, and hey, tied for the best record in the AFC aint so bad!
Ireland gave up an early try, then kicked a goal, and gave up a goal themselves, so at half it was 10-3 Wales. Right after the start of the second half, Ireland got a great try, pulling even 10-10, but Wales was able to strike two tries next, taking an insurmountable lead, eventually winning 25-13. Everyone was bummed, but it was worth taking in on and now I know how to follow a new sport. Oh, and the game ended after 2am, so considering Saturdays we get up just as early as the weekdays, I was a but sleep deprived that day at work, but it was only a half day.This weekend was a fun one. After work on Friday, I was introduced (truly) to the sport of rugby. As you may know, there are a few Irish architects living and working with me and all of them are into their nation's rugby team.
The world cup of rugby is happening this month, and Ireland had made it to the quarterfinals against Wales. There was a big group of about a dozen others who showed up for the game here at the house close to midnight. We were able to find a live stream online and project it onto the wall and take in on the fun. Football and rugby aren't all that different, outside of the downs and clock stopping. A touchdown is a 'try' and is worth 5 instead of 6. The extra point is a conversion, worth 2 and not 1, so that evens out. A field goal and a 'goal' are both worth 3, so not all different. It is just football we throw it forward and rugby the ball needs to constantly be lateraled unless it is kicked. Pretty interesting...and there are two 40 minute halves, but there is constant movement, not stupid commercials and breaks that we all hate.After work, we went as a group and got lunch in town, then headed into downtown Port-au-Prince to got to the Haiti National Museum. It is this really unique shaped building, circular, built into the ground with a workable landscape (see pics). Not too much content, but us being a bunch of architectural geeks, loved the building itself, right across the street from the dilapidated Palace. After we got home, I put on "Coming to America" and followed with "Big Lebowski", potentially my two favorite movies and about eight of us gathered and enjoyed them both.
Sunday, I had planned to go to the metal market, this place outside of town with dozens of talented artists that sell and display their work, but there was not enough space in the car for everyone, so I volunteered to stay back. To take advantage of the day, nice one...overcast and cool, both Ben and I got dropped off in Petionville near the office and we had lunch, then leisurely walked back to the house (about 1.5 hrs). During the walk, something I have been wanting to do for a few weeks now, I took photos of things I have noticed these past few weeks while driving past, too quickly to snap shots in most cases. A lot of wall art, interesting structures, and fun views. We got back just in time to catch the start of the Chargers game and I was a happy camper. For those of you who don't know, every NFL game is streamed each week on thertv.eu for free. Check it out, kept me on top of my games the whole time I have been here, thank goodness! Once it got dark, the house put on the first two "Bourne" movies and then went to bed. Fun weekend.
The coolest part is yet to come, though. A group of six of us are going to hike to Jacmel, a beautiful southern
beach town about 95 km from Petionville. We are going to get dropped off at the end of this road that goes that direction early Friday morning. We will then hike about 12 miles or so to the La Visite National Park, then camp there for the night. Then on Saturday we will get up to hike southwest along the coast to Jacmel, getting there come afternoon. Half of us will stay (Nancy, Mari and Mike) at a hotel, and the other three (myself, Ben and Sven) are staying at this tiny shack right on the beach attached to the Dignite school we are working on down there. Supposed to be gorgeous, plus it is free. Sunday we will all hang down at the beach, then get picked up in the afternoon and brought back to Petionville (about 2.5 hr drive). The last pic is the road we live up and go down everyday...so strange to see it without bumper to bumper traffic like every morning and evening throughout the work week.
I am SO EXCITED for this, something that has been talked about for a long time here at the house. The trail is well established and is a common thing to do on the weekends, so we won't be the only ones. It is going to be my last weekend here, so I wanted to make the best of it.
So, don't expect too much from me until after I get back from the hike. Hope, as always, everyone back home is doing well. Wanted to congratulate my good friends Lisa and Alex who found out they are having a baby early next year. So awesome!! Proud of you both.
Love you all, see some of you next week when I get back. Crazy...

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Chargers win, 'nother week done!

Wow, I think this has been the quickest week yet. I managed to get a good amount of work done each day, mainly working on the Santo project that we had a rough deadline for Friday to compile everything we have on it and submit it to Habitat for Humanity. For three days I had some rather boring, repetitious CAD work, where I drew dimension lines for every house on every block for the entire project. So, I just put on some tunes and went for it. Although it was a bit boring at times, it was also fun to just listen to good music and fly through the project. I also had to format pages for each block, so all in all there were 55 pages to plot, print and have ready for submission by Friday. I got it done, no problem. Outside of the CAD work, I got to do a few elevations and sections in photoshop, make them look nice and pretty, basically showing the houses, trees, vegetation, and people. That was fun, getting more commands down and learning to render better.

Thursday was Roudjina's birthday, the three year old Haitian girl that lives here with her mom, who does the cooking and cleaning here. Nancy collected some money from all of us and got her a pink Cinderella dress, which took her over 15 minutes to open, soaking up the attention. Quite a cute kid...
Friday we had our monthly 'meet and greet' at the office, where we host local people around the area that can present info on either their company or projects. It's hard to believe the first one I attended was just on my second full day here and I was still so fresh. That was over five weeks ago and now that I have gotten to know everyone and feel them all out, it was way more easy going and I felt so much more comfortable. There were beers and hor'dourves served and the presentation dealt with the expenses of building materials before and after the quake, which in many cases of doubled or tripled for no reason outside of because they can. It is really sad, there should be more support in rebuilding as opposed to ripping people off. After the meeting, we got home and I just went to sleep. Was tired from a long but nice week.

As far as working week went, no site visits or leaving the area to comment about Monday through Friday, but yesterday the entire staff went to the Ellie Dubois school site in downtown Port-au-Prince to do some outdoor work, which was so much fun. One of the buildings on the site was demolished a couple weeks ago, and knowing that the new construction has not been completed and school is set to begin tomorrow, we needed to come up with the place for the kids to have class until then. So, we got access to a large tent and we spent the morning into the afternoon assembling it as a group. The tent is about 12' wide by 100' long, but it has been stored in a really humid area so there are patches of mold that needed to be bleached and attended to before pitching it up. I was in charge of chiseling out spots in a concrete slab for rebar picks to hold down the tent, and without wearing my gloves, I blistered up my hands pretty nicely. Nice to just be outside doing some manual labor getting nice and dirty, sweating up a storm. It's just we get so used to being inside and working primarily on the computer, the change of pace is so necessary.
After we finished the tent, we went back to the office and everyone headed down to Muncheez, a cool little pizza/burger joint about a block away. Eric, the team leader here, bought us all dinner (which was initially thought to be lunch), which was really nice of him. We had a few drinks and pizzas, then headed home. One of the girls here, Rickie, had a birthday party later, so after getting home and taking much needed showers and changing do less soaked clothes, we went to that. A friend of hers hosted at her house and pretty much all of us went to socialize for the evening over drinks and snacks. Really nice time. Got home pretty late and slept in this morning, which was great!
I got up and did some much needed laundry (every single shirt I brought with me needed to be washed). After getting that done, I decided to go on a small hike up the hill from the house since I heard there was a pretty cool view from the upper area of the road. After a few minutes, the road narrows to just a walking path and you are then in the countryside, quite a change of pace. Chance (the house dog) decided she wanted to come with me and she kept me company the whole way, really cute. Makes me miss Charger and his companionship.


By the time I got back to the house, I was soaked again and needed another shower, and I then settled in on the couch for the rest of the day (where I am still currently planted 10 hours later!). I found a great website that lets me stream all the football games, so I came up with a cool system of hooking up my computer to the projector and some ipod speakers, and voila! Surround sound football. The internet today was about as flawless as can be, and I find it appalling how this whole wireless internet thing works, quite amazing...
Chargers won, which is nice. Starting 3-1 is a comfort, instead of getting such a slow start as they historically do. Be good if we can knock off Denver next week and be 4-1 going into the bye week. Then I will be home to see them play the Jets on Nicole and my anniversary. Wow, one year...that sure came quick.
Love you all, hope everyone has a nice start to October. Take care.